[tadol]

Originally Posted by Truckjohn

I built a parlor guitar out of red oak... Including an oak neck, head block, and tail block.

It's a great guitar and all - but carving that neck was a royal pain.... And all that oak is kinda heavy compared to making all those parts out of "normal" stuff. The neck also requires more force on the trussrod because the oak is just so stiff...

One caution about C-clamps on the headstock....
Adding weight tends to mirror the sort of results you experience by making things far more flexible.

Guitars behave differently with a clamp clamped to the end of a conventional neck than they do with a heavy, stiff neck like the oak neck. C-clamps produce a very audible change in sound that I don't really like. This is because they accentuate the "marimba bar" moment on the guitar where the whole thing flexes end to end and reduce its frequency considerably. It makes the guitar sound "woofy" in a bad way.

Normally constructed necks made with heavier woods tend to be WAY stiffer - and the weight is spread out across the entire neck... As such, it has a completely different effect than just adding some clamps.

Thanks

Was only pointing to other ways that I hadn't seen mentioned to help with sustain - a small clamp is a quick way to see what effect a larger/heavier headstock could make - can't imagine anyone would think to keep one clamped on - the density of neck stock and finished dimension does affect weight, flexibility, tone, and playability - solid single species v laminated will as well - truss rod and reinforcements will too - lots and lots of variables that will affect tone and sustain, and none of them have anything to do with the body of the guitar even though thats all many focus on or pay attention to -